Doctor insights on:
What Are Some Advantages Of Arthroscopic Surgery

1

Quick Recovery:
Small incisions. Outpatient surgery. Minimal general anesthesia due to short surgery time and use of regional nerve blocks. Quick recovery. Less pain. Minimal surgical risks. High success rates.
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Arthroscopic surgery involves looking inside of a joint with a very small camera. The joint is filled with water and the camera is placed into the joint, using small incisions. Most orthopaedic surgeons utilize arthroscopic surgery to treat a variety of conditions, including: meniscal and rotator cuff years, joint infections and inflammation, removal of loose bodies and ligament reconstructions.
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2

Open for debate:
Surgery is an ever evolving discipline and less invasive modalities such as endoscopic technique decrease overall trauma to the patient. As newer techniques are constantly evolving, lack of a standard is a big disadvantage. Having gone through the evolution myself, i miss the actual tactile component of surgery. Nothing is as gentle as your surgeon's hands when dealing with very delicate tissue.
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3

Many:
If you have a meniscus tear that has is symptomatic, i.e. Pain, swelling, locking up or catching, or causing your knee to give way then surgery is a great option to remove the torn meniscus making it stable and getting you back to symptom free function.
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4

Same 4 other surgery:
Any surgery has a risks of pain, infection, damage to neurovascular structures or worst of all, failure. In general arthroscopic surgeries have a lower rate of infection than similar open procedures. Arthroscopic surgery provides better visualization with less soft tissue damage. Typically the recovery is faster and there is less pain than with open procedures.
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5

Very few.:
The goal of every operation is to safely accomplish the desired outcome. "mis" allows us to do this with much less pain than traditional surgery, but it should never be at the expense of less safety. Furthermore, the indications for surgery shouldn't change based on technique. A critical measure of competence is the number of prior options performed--be sure to ask your surgeon this question.
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8

Different graft type:
The ACL is typically reconstructed (replaced) rather than repaired. We typically reconstruct the ligament with a graft. The graft choice is often individualized to the patient. The three most common graft choices are a portion of the patellar tendon (bone patellar tendon bone), a piece of the hamstring tendon, or a graft from a cadaver (allograft). They all work well in the appropriate patient
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9

Can be limited:
Wrist arthroscopy is an excellent, fairly low risk procedure for diagnosing and treating many wrist conditions including, ligament tears, synovitis, mild arthritis and ganglion cysts. It is limited to what can be performed through small portals in the wrist and sometimes other procedures may be needed.
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10

Pain relief:
Joints are typically replaced when they become arthritic and painful. Artificial joints do not function as well as normal joints, but do perform better than painful/arthritic joints. Range of motion and strenght are typically improved with joint replacement surgery, which leads to better function. Artificial joints will all eventually wear out and there are some limitations with there use.
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11

More precision:
With robotic surgery, the surgeon can use natural wrist and hand motions which are exactly replicated inside the patient with the robotic instruments. Visualization is improved with magnification and depth perception. This improved precision results in less blood loss, less tissue trauma, less pain, and better recovery for patients.
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14

Relief of pain:
Arthroscopy can remove or repair a torn meniscus, improving pain and function. Complications are rare, but like all surgery, it can result in infection, blood clots or other complications. Also, surgery is not guaranteed to be successful.
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15

To eliminate glasses:
There are a few tricks your ophthalmologist can recommend to allow compensation for presbyopia. The condition itself cannot be treated as it is a natural age related hardening of the lens. Surgery can establish monovision which you can ask the doctor about.
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16

Quicker recovery:
In the old days, we did open surgery for stones where we made an incision and removed the stone. You were typically in the hospital a few days and had to recover from the incision. With eswl, you are normally treated as an outpatient and able to return to work in a couple of days.
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17

Less invasive:
Pro: less invasive (small incision, less tissue disturbance), maybe faster recovery (hard to prove)
con: more x-ray exposure, fewer surgeons competent in technique, may or may not prove more effective than conventional surgery
both it and conventional share surgical risks: infection, bleeding, continued symptoms, relapse, nerve or blood vessel problems, etc.
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20

Depends:
Most clinicians recommend nonsurgical treatments for spinal disorders rather than going straight to surgery for common conditions like disc disease,spinal stenosis,spondolisthesis,etc. When all else fails, then surgery is considered. This approach is popular because with invasive treatment complications are possible and treatment failures are not uncommon.
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Arthroscopy is minimally invasive joint surgery, commonly used for the knee & shoulder, but also for the ankle, hip, wrist, elbow and other joints. A camera with a fiber optic cable is attached to a video screen placed thru a 1 cm incision and other instruments are introduced thru other small incisions to do the work required. The small incisions allow for quicker recovery than open surgery.
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